House Backs Bill For Frederick Douglass Statue At Capitol

A House committee approved a bill Wednesday that would put statues of two D.C. luminaries in the Capitol, but only after the panel’s top Democrat and Republican squabbled over voting rights and whether the city should be equated with a state or a U.S. territory.

The House Administration Committee voted along party lines for a measure that calls for placing statues of abolitionist Frederick Douglass and architect Pierre L’Enfant in Statuary Hall, just as the 50 states have two statues apiece in the halls of the Capitol. The Douglass and L’Enfant statues have been sitting at One Judiciary Square, awaiting permission to move into the legislative branch.